In an interview, BW Businessworld Mr. Neeraj Tyagi – Co-founder and CEO, We founder Circle- startup investment platform talks about investment scenario in India, foreign markets, global network of investors and strategic investors
How did you get the idea to start WeFounder Circle?
Being an early-stage investor in over 25 start-ups in the last five years, having facilitated over 50 fundraise deals from Venture Catalysts, where Mr. Neeraj Tyagi was Managing Partner, he understood that to increase the chances of success for a startup, just funding is not enough. He identified that the entrepreneurs need regular mentoring along with business support to be able to catch the right pace. While pondering over the solution he figured that there cannot be a better way to do this, than by building a community of successful founders and strategic investors who offer their knowledge, time and financial resources to the aspiring early stage founders.
Therefore, We Founder Circle was established in August 2020 on the thesis of integrated support to build startups on the foundation of founder-backing-founder community. WFC believes that a founder can understand the daily challenges of another start-up founder and hence synergize better.
Given this very reason, the brand has been able to connect well known founders from successful start-ups such as Beardo, Dine Out, Zypp Electric, SupplyNote, and One Impression among others, who have invested and mentored start-ups in their early stage, through the WFC platform.
What are the criteria to select an apt startup for investment?
The basic fundamentals of any potential successful startup that an investor certainly considers would include- The team, Scalable Idea and Early Traction.
The Team
The founders & the initial founding team members should clearly prove they are the most apt team to scale that business successfully. This comes with a combination of pedigree, domain expertise, and the market intelligence about the core business.
Scalable Idea
Any idea that has a great chance to scale very rapidly & which can reach a multi million dollars revenue in the next 5-7 years qualifies the scalability criteria. Technology plays a big role in this, hence the tech product strength assessment becomes crucial.
Early Traction
The early response of the market says a lot of things about the model. An investor would definitely see how the market and the consumers have responded to the business solution. If they are happy paying the price for the value that has been offered? How fast the initial few hundreds of customers are onboarded? What’s the repeat purchase? Are they referring to others? What’s the cost of acquiring the customers? These are some of the basic questions that give an idea of the execution by the founding team.
Apart from this WFC conducts a ‘Pitch day’ session every month where they feature 2-3 start-ups after a thorough selection process. The founder/ founders present their business models virtually to the investors, which is followed by a one-on-one ‘Deep-dive session’. This end-to-end process ensures that potential investors assess the startups well and decide on the investment.
Which startup sector is every investor’s delight this year?
We Founder Circle has an industry-agnostic approach and the portfolio reflects the brightest and boldest ideas that are set to fuel the future. Currently, the brand is closely monitoring and scrutinizing the Consumer Tech, D2C brands, Edtech, Fintech, Agro and SAAS-based models, given the rising acceptability and scope. Post pandemic people have become more digitally equipped and hence the interest has shifted towards tech enablers.
What are the chances for recovery of the investment scenario?
Interestingly, at We Founder Circle itself 4 startups that were born during the pandemic received funds. WFC facilitated close to 8 startup fundraise deals within the 100 days of its operations, since August 2020. This has reached around 15 investments in the first 8 months. If we talk about what the brand has witnessed, then clearly the startup ecosystem is recovering and risk-takers, first-time investors and founders-turned-investors trust WFC for their startup investment decisions.
In addition to this, India has seen more than a dozen start-ups enter the Unicorn Club in the first half of this year. A total of $7.8 billion raised by Indian start-ups this year is another testimony of increasing positive sentiments on the backdrop of this pandemic.
Tell us about your expansion plans in other regions/countries?
Yes we are aggressively exploring foreign markets to have more and more angel investors on our network. So far we already have 1500 angels in our network and are continuously expanding. WFC is a global network of investors and founders with a strong presence across 15+ countries. The brand’s digital-first, and community-based model has enabled a global participation.
Brief about your ongoing and upcoming ventures?
Currently, we are focussing on nurturing the startups domain in India. We are at a good pace and aim at closing around 50 startup fundraise deals by the end of the year.
How tough have these Covid times been for investors?
In my personal opinion, after the initial 2-3 months of the shock period, the investment industry bounced back, and reinvented the ways to engage both the startups and the potential investors. At WFC we began our operations during the covid 19 pandemic, in a short span of 8 months we grew to a community of 1500 angel investors from over 15 countries. Also out of these angel investors more than 150 have already made a total of 250 investments across 15 portfolio startups of ours. This clearly summarizes the sentiment of investors. I feel this is going to grow stronger as the industry, corporates along with the government are looking at startups to revive the overall economy.
Source: Business World
